Geography
“Geography is important because it is so relevant and opens our eyes to the world we live in.”
The sentiment of the quotation above captures the essence of Geography at Knightsbridge School. The curriculum seeks to inspire the children to think beyond themselves and appreciate the world in which they live. It encourages them to recognise how the world has a significant impact on their lives and how their actions can affect the state of our planet as well.
As the children progress through the school, the curriculum covers a variety of topics incorporating both physical and human geography. At each level, there are a number of skills, which are woven into the lessons. The children learn how to draw and interpret maps and diagrams; develop their research skills; investigate and analyse current issues in the world; write clear, logical explanations using the correct geographical vocabulary; and present their ideas to an audience.
We use the national scheme of work for geography as the basis for our curriculum planning alongside the ISEB CE 13+ Syllabus. We have adapted the national scheme to the local circumstances of our school, i.e. we make use of the local environment in our fieldwork and we also choose a locality where the human activities and physical features provide a contrast to those that predominate in our own immediate area. We plan the topics in geography so that they build upon prior learning. Children of all abilities have the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge in each topic and, through planned progression built into the scheme of work, we offer them an increasing challenge as they move up the school.
We teach geography in Nursery, Reception and Year 1 as an integral part of the topic work covered during the year. As the Nursery and Reception classes are part of the Foundation Stage of the National Curriculum, we relate the geographical aspects of the children’s work to the objectives set out in the Early Years Learning Goals (EYLGs). Geography makes a significant contribution to the ELG objectives of developing a child’s knowledge and understanding of the world through activities such as visiting people who help us in the local area, collecting postcards from different places, singing songs from around the world, or making ornaments from recycled objects. In Year 1, the project topics, ‘Noah’s Ark’, ‘Out of Africa’ and ‘Going to the Seaside’ lend themselves perfectly to the children being able to develop their geographical skills.
From Year 2, Geography is taught as a discrete subject. The children continue to investigate their local area and contrasting areas within the UK and abroad. They find out about the local environment and the people who live there and carry out geographical enquiry both inside and outside the classroom. The topics covered for each term are:
Year 2: - Mexico, Around Our School – our local area, and ‘An island home’. Year 3, Our Local Environment, Natural Disasters – Volcanoes & Earthquakes and Settlement.
From Year 4 to Year 8, the children will investigate a variety of people, places and environments at different scales in the UK and abroad. They find out how people affect the environment and how they are affected by it. They carry out geographical enquiry inside and outside the classroom, and use geographical skills and resources such as maps, atlases, aerial photographs and ICT. Each year, the children conduct an independent piece of project work. This enables the children to build up their research, analysis and presentation skills to prepare them for the next stage of their schooling. Likewise, each year the children develop their global locational knowledge and also their Ordnance Survey Map Skills.
In Year 4 and Year 5, the topics covered are guided by the National Curriculum:
Year 4: Europe, A Village in India and RainforestsYear 5: Weather and Climate, A Contrasting UK locality (Llandudno), and Settlement & Land Use
In Year 6, the children start the Common Entrance syllabus. The syllabus is taught across the three years as follows:
Year 6: Ordnance Survey Map Skills, Rivers & Weathering, Settlement & Land UseYear 7: Geomorphological Processes (Rivers & Coasts), Tectonic Processes (Earthquakes & Volcanoes) and Weather & ClimateYear 8: Economic Activity, National Parks & Tourism, and the CE Fieldwork study
Trips and fieldwork are vital to good geography teaching and we include as many opportunities as we can to involve children in practical geographical research and enquiry.
In the Junior School, we let all the children carry out an investigation into the local environment and we give them opportunities to observe and record information around the school site. In the Senior School, the children conduct a study of the local area and have an opportunity to travel further afield to carry out fieldwork in a contrasting environment in Year 5 and Year 8.
The children also get the opportunity to take part in the Geography Game Show, a whirlwind game show demonstration in which the presenter draws a map of the world in a few moments from memory and quizzes the children on the locations of various countries, cities and geographical features.